Total pages in book: 65
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61427 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 307(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
The fork fell out of his hands and clattered onto his plate. He swallowed hard. “That’s probably not a good idea.”
“Why not?” She gave a wry smile. “Isn’t sex always a good idea, according to guys?”
He coughed at the word sex. “Most believe that,” he admitted. “But we’ve only just met, Marley.”
He was right. She’d known him less than a week. But already she felt a connection to him. When he looked at her, she felt light-headed and vulnerable and so totally aroused. What would be so wrong about falling into bed with this man? She was old enough to know that sex didn’t equal love and marriage. Sometimes it could just be about two people who were wildly attracted to each other, taking pleasure in what the other had to offer.
“Do you always date for at least six months before you sleep with someone?”
“No,” he said. “But you’re different.”
“How so?”
“I don’t know.” His features furrowed with a hint of despair. “You just are.”
She looked at him, and there it was again, that streak of white-hot chemistry, threatening to consume her whole. She wanted this. No, she needed it. Needed to feel wanted and appreciated. Needed to lose herself in this one passionate moment and forget about the stress and headaches of the last three months.
She rose to her feet. “Are you attracted to me?”
“You know I am.” No hesitation on his part. She liked that. She also liked the way his eyes grew heavy-lidded, smoky with unconcealed desire.
“So let’s do something about it.”
Marley lowered her hands to the hem of her T-shirt. She brushed her fingers over the fabric, then lifted it just an inch, to reveal her midriff.
Caleb’s breath hitched. “What are you doing?”
She raised her shirt another inch higher. “What do you think I’m doing?”
He gulped. “Marley…”
“For God’s sake, Caleb, are you going to make me beg for it?”
Without waiting for an answer, she slid the shirt up her chest, over her head and threw it aside.
* * *
OH, LORD.
Caleb swallowed a few times, desperate to bring moisture to the arid desert his mouth had become. He couldn’t tear his eyes off her. All that smooth, golden skin. The luscious, full breasts covered by a lacy white bra with a little pink bow. Christ, that bow. So proper and innocent and downright sexy. It drove him wild.
She drove him wild.
“Say something,” she murmured.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Every muscle in his body was taut, tight as a drum and wrought with tension that could only be eased by the thrust of his cock inside Marley Kincaid’s sweet paradise. Oh, yeah, paradise was the word to describe her, all right. He could practically see her holding out the forbidden apple to him, her perfect skin and flat belly and out-of-this-world breasts taunting him to take a bite.
He stumbled to his feet and pressed his damp palms to his sides. Marley obviously took the action as a sign of assent because she moved closer, and closer, until they were mere inches apart. He knew he shouldn’t be doing this. He was hunting her ex, for Pete’s sake. So why couldn’t he walk away?
His hand, of its own accord, touched her mouth, tracing the curve of her bottom lip. Her lips were red and swollen, the lips of a woman who’d just been thoroughly kissed.
Caleb smothered a wild curse. He’d been fantasizing about this woman for more than a week. He craved her.
But he couldn’t have her. He gritted his teeth.
Her lips parted as she leaned into his touch. “Don’t shut down on me,” she said, as if reading his mind. “I know you want this, too.”
He drew in a breath. Tried valiantly to resist the pure temptation she posed. Gathered up the courage to tell her he didn’t want it, that it would be a mistake.
But then she touched him.
Just the feather-light brush of her fingers across his cheek and he was a goner. He kissed her, pouring all his frustration and pent-up lust into the kiss, pushing his tongue deep into her mouth until she was gasping with delight.
“Close the drapes,” he choked out, pulling back.
She glanced at him in surprise. “What?”
“The drapes. They’re wide open. Any of your neighbors could see us.” One neighbor in particular. He wondered if AJ was watching. If he was shaking his head in disapproval.
“Shoot, you’re right.” She darted over to the window and shut the heavy drapes, officially closing out the world.
Closing out reality.
That’s what he ought to be clinging to, reality, but it was too late now. The fantasy had taken over, and Caleb knew he could no longer walk away. He needed her too badly. Marley Kincaid had gotten under his skin from the second they’d met. He had to have her. He felt like an addict, and this insanely beautiful blonde was his fix. The only cure to the uncontrollable desire running rampant through his blood.